KR20080100005A - International roaming system and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

An international roaming system and a method therefor are provided to search for an international telephone company which offers the lowest international telephone charge in a country where a receiving side user is located by interworking with an external CP which offers information about international telephone charges of each country. An international roaming system comprises the followings: a national exchange(206) which transmits a receipt request to an oversea exchange in which a called terminal is positioned when a national mobile communication terminal requests a call with the called terminal using the international roaming service, in order to establish a speech path; an HLR(208) providing information about the current location of the called terminal; and a GLR(210) which transmits the receipt request to the oversea exchange in which the called terminal is positioned, and provides information about an international telephone company which offers the lowest international charge corresponding to the call establishment with the called terminal.

Description

International Roaming System and Method {INTERNATIONAL ROAMING SYSTEM AND METHOD THEREOF}

1 is an operation control flowchart for a conventional CDMA international roaming service;

2 is a block diagram of a CDMA international roaming system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

3 is an operation control flowchart for a CDMA international roaming service according to an embodiment of the present invention;

<Brief description of the major symbols in the drawings>

200, 218: MS 202: BTS

204: BSC 206, 216: MSC

208: HLR 210: GLR

212: external CP 214: GLR DB

The present invention relates to an international roaming method of a mobile communication terminal, and more particularly, to international roaming using a mobile communication terminal in a mobile communication network such as code division multiplex access (CDMA), global system for mobile communication (GSM), and WCDMA. The present invention relates to an international roaming system and a method for reducing charges due to international roaming by connecting to an international telephone provider that automatically provides the lowest rate.

In general, an international roaming service means that a mobile subscriber can continue to receive a mobile communication service from another country using the same mobile communication terminal as his / her telephone number.

Recently, the standard of living of the people has improved, and the demand for globalization is actively progressed so that the number of overseas departures is increasing rapidly. Accordingly, the demand for international roaming service that provides mobile communication services in other countries is rapidly increasing. There is a trend.

FIG. 1 illustrates an operation concept of performing an international roaming service using a mobile communication terminal in a CDMA mobile communication network among conventional mobile communication networks such as CDMA, GSM, WCDMA, and the like. Shall be.

First, when a domestic mobile communication terminal subscriber A makes a call to subscriber B requesting international roaming, a mobile terminal (MS) 100 of a subscriber A is referred to as a mobile switching center (MSC). In step 102, subscriber B (not shown) that is roaming internationally is called. Then, the domestic MSC 102 transmits a Location Request message to the Home Location Register (HLR) 104 to query the incoming information of the terminal subscriber B that has requested international roaming (S12), and the HLR 104 In order to receive the terminal subscriber B, a routing request message is transmitted to a gateway location register (GLR) 106 (S14).

Then, the GLR 106 transmits a routing request to the overseas MSC 108 where the called party B is located (S16), and the overseas MSC 108 to which the subscriber B belongs belongs to an international Temporary Local Directory Number (TLDN) for incoming calls. Is returned as a Routing Request Response (S18).

Then, the GLR 106 transmits a routing request response message to the HLR 104 (S20), and the HLR 104 recognizes that the called party B is roaming internationally through the reception of the TLDN, and applies for international roaming in advance. The international subscriber's code set by the terminal subscriber B is attached to the international TLDN and returned to the domestic MSC (102). Accordingly, the mobile phone is moved according to international roaming between the domestic and overseas MSCs (102, 108). The phone is enabled (S24).

However, in the conventional international roaming method as described above with reference to FIG. 1, only international call operators applied by international roaming subscribers apply in advance, and currently, a plurality of international calls having various rate schemes are appropriately used according to the user's environment. In this situation, it was difficult to improve the problems such as the international subscriber fee being charged relatively expensive to the subscriber B.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an international roaming system and method for reducing the usage fee according to international roaming by connecting to an international telephone provider that automatically provides the lowest rate when roaming using a mobile communication terminal.

The present invention for achieving the above object is an international roaming system, when a domestic terminal receiving a request for incoming international terminal roaming call from a mobile terminal, the domestic exchanger to send a call request to the foreign exchange is located in the destination terminal to form a currency path And the HLR providing the location information of the called terminal to the exchange and the location of the called terminal requested from the domestic exchange through international roaming to transmit a call request to an overseas exchange in which the called terminal is located. And a GLR for providing the lowest international rate provider information according to a call setup with the called terminal to the domestic exchange.

The present invention also provides an international roaming method comprising the steps of: (a) requesting location information of a terminating terminal to an HLR when a domestic exchange request is received from a domestic mobile communication terminal to a terminating terminal that is roaming internationally; Transmitting a routing message for an incoming call to the called terminal to an overseas exchange in which the called terminal is located through a GLR; and (c) the GLR searches for the lowest rate international telephone provider code information when the international roaming is performed. Returning to the domestic exchange along with the international TLDN information transmitted from the exchange; and (d) establishing a call path with a corresponding foreign exchange using the TLDN through the international telephone operator. It features.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail the operation of the preferred embodiment according to the present invention.

2 illustrates a mobile communication network structure for an international roaming call according to an embodiment of the present invention, and illustrates a mobile communication network structure for CDMA international roaming call for convenience of description among mobile communication networks such as CDMA, GSM, and WCDMA. will be. Therefore, the international roaming operation method in the CDMA network described below will be described in detail, but this is merely for convenience of description and can be equally applied to other mobile communication networks such as GSM and WCDMA.

2, a mobile station (MS) (A) 200 is a user interface device and performs a call with a counterpart terminal formed as a call by the MSC 206. When performing the international roaming according to the mobile phone terminal (B) 218 requesting international roaming through a roaming signal network.

A base transceiver station (BTS) 202 is a device configured as a radio transceiver and transmits / receives voice calls and packet data through a wireless link with a mobile communication terminal 200 in a radio access network (RAN). . A base station controller (BSC) 204 manages a plurality of BTSs 202 and is in charge of processing of radio channel setup, frequency hopping, handover, and the like.

The MSC 206 is responsible for mobility management, location registration / management, authentication, handover, and roaming of the terminal (A) 200, and also registers the location of mobile communication terminals in each base station through a VLR (Visitor Location Register). The information is updated and stored, and the changed location registration information of the terminals is transmitted to the HLR 208 which manages the location registration information of the terminal so that the location information of the mobile communication terminal 200 is periodically updated.

In addition, in international roaming according to an embodiment of the present invention, the MSC 206 performs a role as a domestic MSC when receiving a call request from the domestic mobile communication terminal 200 to the called terminal 218 applying for international roaming. An incoming call is sent to the overseas MSC 216 where the called terminal 218 is located to form a call path.

The Home Location Register (HLR) 208 manages the current location information of the mobile communication terminal 200, the status of mobile subscribers, statistics and various service related information, and also performs international roaming according to the present invention. Through the routing request response message received from the gateway location register (GLR), it recognizes the incoming signal of the lowest international rate and transmits it to the outgoing domestic MSC 206 as it is. That is, the digit of the routing request response message received from the incoming overseas MSC 216 is an international TLDN. In the HLR 208, the international TLDN is used for an international telephone code set by a subscriber managed in a subscriber profile. Insert it into the domestic MSC (206) is to be transmitted.

The GLR 210 checks the location of the called terminal 218 that is requested from the domestic MSC 206 through international roaming, and sends the calling terminal (A) to the overseas MSC 216 where the called terminal (B) 218 is located. The call request from the caller 200 is transmitted, and the domestic MSC 206 provides the lowest international rate provider information according to the call setup with the caller terminal 218.

In addition, the GLR 210 interoperates with an external CP (Contents Provider) that provides information on international telephone providers, and periodically receives information on domestic international telephone providers that provide the lowest rates for each country. GLR DB (Data Base) 214 Search for operator code information that provides the lowest international rate by country, and provide the international Temporary Local Directory Number (TLDN) information to the domestic MSC 206 together with the retrieved lowest international rate service provider code. do.

That is, when the GLR 210 receives the routing request response message from the overseas MSC 216, the international telephone operator code (001, 00700, 008) provides the lowest international rate of the country in which the subscriber of the destination terminal 218 is roaming. , 00300, etc.) is retrieved from the DB 214, and the retrieved operator code information is inserted into the international TLDN and transmitted to the calling domestic MSC 206.

Roaming signal network generally refers to a signal network (STP) for interworking a mobile communication service between an operator and an operator, and there are signal network providers (Syniverse, Verisign, etc.) that provide STP services.

FIG. 3 illustrates an international roaming operation control signal flow for allowing a subscriber to use an international roaming service at the lowest rate in a CDMA network according to an embodiment of the present invention. Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

First, when the domestic mobile communication terminal subscriber A 200 makes a call to an overseas destination terminal subscriber B 218 requesting for international roaming, the terminal A subscriber terminal B 218 requesting international roaming to the mobile communication network MSC 206. It will be called (S30). Then, the domestic MSC 206 transmits a Location Request message to the HLR 208 for querying the incoming information of the terminal subscriber B 218 who requested the international roaming (S32), and the HLR 208 receives the terminal subscriber. In order to receive the B 218, a routing request message is transmitted to the GLR 210 (S34).

Then, the GLR 210 transmits a routing request to the overseas MSC 216 in which the called terminal B 218 is located (S36), and the overseas MSC 216 to which the terminal subscriber B 218 belongs is called for an international call. The TLDN is returned in a routing request response (S38).

In this case, when the GLR 210 receives the routing request response message from the overseas MSC 216 as described above, in response to the present invention, the GLR 210 interworks with an external content provider (CP) that provides the lowest international rate information for each country. (218) retrieve the operator code information providing the lowest international rate for the country to which the country belongs (S39), and the international Temporary Local (TLDN) transmitted from the foreign MSC (216) together with the retrieved minimum international rate providing international call operator code; Directory Number) information is returned to the HLR as a routing request response message (S40).

Then, the HLR 208 recognizes that the lowest international rate is applied from the routing request response message received from the GLR 210 and transmits the corresponding digit (lowest rate international telephone operator code + international TLDN) to the domestic MSC 206 ( S42).

Accordingly, the domestic MSC 206 routes the international TLDN to the corresponding international telephone operator, and the international telephone operator analyzes the country code in the TLDN to make a call through the international telephone operator gateway of the country where the terminating subscriber B 218 is located. The furnace is set (S44).

As described above, in the present invention, an international telephone service provider providing a minimum international calling rate in a country where a called terminal subscriber requesting international roaming is located in connection with an external CP that provides the lowest international calling rate for each country when international roaming is performed in a mobile communication network. After the search, the international roaming service is provided through the international telephone service provider that provides the lowest rate for the corresponding country, so that the international roaming service is available to the mobile subscribers at a lower cost, thereby using the international roaming service. It can be activated.

Meanwhile, in the above description of the present invention, specific embodiments have been described, but various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the invention should be determined by the claims rather than by the described embodiments.

As described above, in the present invention, an international call providing a minimum international call rate in a country where a called terminal subscriber requesting international roaming is located in connection with an external CP that provides the lowest international call rate for each country when international roaming is performed in a mobile communication network. After searching for a service provider, international roaming service is provided through the international telephone service provider that provides the lowest rate for the corresponding country, thereby making it possible to use the international roaming service at a lower cost to a mobile terminal subscriber. This has the advantage of activating the use of.

Claims (6)

As an international roaming system, A domestic exchange that sends a call request to an overseas exchange in which the called terminal is located and receives a call request from a domestic mobile communication terminal for international roaming; An HLR providing location information of the called terminal to the exchange; Confirm the location of the called terminal requested by the domestic exchange through international roaming, and transmit the incoming request to the foreign exchange where the called terminal is located, and provide the lowest international rate provider according to the call setting with the called terminal to the domestic exchange. Informational GLR International roaming system comprising a. The method of claim 1, The GLR searches for operator code information that provides the lowest international rate for each country by interworking with an external CP that provides international call operator information, and transmits the international TLDN information together with the retrieved lowest international rate service provider code. International roaming system, characterized in that provided by. The method of claim 2, The GLR, the international roaming system, characterized in that the link to the external CP and the domestic international telephone provider information that provides the lowest rate for each country periodically and stored in the GLR DB. As an international roaming method, (a) the domestic exchange requesting the location information of the called terminal to the HLR when the call is requested from the domestic mobile communication terminal to the called terminal which is roaming internationally; (b) the HLR transmitting a routing message for an incoming call to the called terminal to a foreign exchange in which the called terminal is located through a GLR; (c) the GLR retrieving the lowest fee providing international telephone operator code information when the international roaming is returned to the domestic exchange together with the international TLDN information transmitted from the foreign exchange; (d) establishing, by the domestic exchange, a call path with a corresponding foreign exchange using the TLDN through the international telephone provider; International roaming method comprising a. The method of claim 4, wherein In the step (c), the GLR interoperates with an external CP that provides international telephone operator information, searches for operator code information that provides the lowest international rate for each country, and attaches it to the international TLDN to the domestic exchange as a routing response message. International roaming method characterized in that the return. The method of claim 5, wherein The GLR, the international roaming method, characterized in that the inter-linked with the external CP receives a domestic international telephone operator information that provides the lowest rate for each country periodically stored in the GLR DB.

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